anI can't decide if I should go to this or not. 91% of me says no. Specifically, this 91% of me that says no really means to say: why on earth would you go, you can't stand him and this whole parenting whooshmagoosh that seems to be faddish as of late. The other 9% of me feels sort of like I felt when I swallowed all pride and trudged off to see matchy-matchy read. There is so much angst, so much irritation with Pollack and his alternadading, I feel I need hard (er?) evidence. Is he really that much of an ass? Is he truly unbearable? Again, 91% of me says yes. Yet how can you judge a man's work without having read it and how can you judge a man's level of cockiness without seeing him trot it out during a reading?
I'm torn. I'd rather just assume he's an ass from all I've read and move on. Yet all I've read are other people's accounts of how much he irritates them. How much he bugs to the core. Should I find out if he bugs me to the core before I get any further? Possibly. But where would that get me? If he does annoy me (which I fully expect, probably a conflict of interests from the get-go), what am I meant to do? Write about it as scores of others have already done more eloquently? Pointless. The only story here is if I happen to be un-irritated by him or - egads - if I like him. The chances of this are quite low, but this is the only angle worth covering, right?
Yet, with so many books to read and authors to see that I really care about and believe in supporting, it seems a waste of time to traipse to Skylight on a Friday night to see a writer isn't on the list of "books to read and authors to see that I really care about and believe in."